Shue Discusses The First Year

At six o'clock this evening in Lerner Hall Cinema, Columbia students are invited to see The First Year, a Peabody Award-winning documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim. The film follows five teachers through their first year at a troubled inner city school. After the screening, a panel discussion will be held involving Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America, a program that places recent college graduates in troubled schools.

The discussion will also include Andrew Shue, known mostly for his role on the FOX series Melrose Place, who founded a national community service organization, "Do Something." I had a chance to talk to Andrew about the film and education in America today.

Q: Maybe you want to talk a bit why a busy, on-the-go Columbia student should put aside the time to participate in the screening and discussion.

Andrew Shue: I think there's two reasons: first, every student in America should be interested in the state of education in our country, and this film not only inspires you to want to become a teacher, but it shows you, in a very personal way, the tragic state of education that we're in. And how, no matter what you're going to do in your life, you have to be aware of what's happening in the schools in the cities across our county so that you can participate in making them better. Whether that means being an active parent, whether that means being an advocate for increasing teaching salaries, we all have a role to play in improving public education.

Q: I wrote a column for last Monday's Spectator about "The New Discontent," discussing the mental state of today's troubled youth. A lot of kids--and this is something Columbine brought out--feel a kind of rage that can lead to internal depression or the wish to inflict external harm. How can the teacher, with all the focus on tests and academic performance in education today, reach a troubled student today?

AS: I think it's imperative that there be a much more comprehensive approach to education. The fellow students have a role to play, the teacher, the administration has a huge role to play, and obviously the parents have the largest role to play. School today is not just about learning facts, it's about shaping people and citizens.

Q: Compare for me working on "Melrose Place" and teaching for a year in Zimbabwe.

AS: I think after my experience in Zimbabwe I felt that every person, if they can, should teach, because it is the ultimate way to give back some of the gifts we've been given, and I felt that I got to grow as a person more in that year than with any other experience I've had in my life. I was taking from the experience, while I was also so cognizant of the fact that I was giving. That's when life is great, when you're giving something back and being part of an adventure. When you're an actor on a television show, you don't have the same balance. I was getting a lot, maybe not giving so much, so I constantly forced myself to try to balance that equation. That's why I started getting involved in Do Something.

Q: Where does the parent fit into the teacher-student relationship?

AS: I think that there needs to be the right balance, it really comes down to just a good line of communication. As long as there's enough attention being paid on all sides of that triangle, so that there's a mutual respect on all sides of the triangle, there's no way that student won't be compelled to grow.

Q: Kids today are often said to think of athletes and actors as their role models. I read a story recently about a kid who thought an online sports columnist was his definition of a "great American." Is it too much to ask kids to see teachers as role models, or is there a place for that?

AS: You'll find 90 percent of most kids who are telling the truth, and if they have been lucky enough, will say that their parents had the biggest influence on them. You'll find that along the way there's been maybe one or two teachers outside the family circle who fundamentally altered the direction of their life. The teacher has not only a role and a duty, but a huge opportunity as a respected person of influence who can connect with that student in a safe environment where the student is willing to take some chances to grow where they might not normally.

Q: Any final thoughts about the film?

AS: This film is a phenomenal representation of the challenge we face in shaping and proving public education. It's a phenomenal representation of the incredible experience it is to be a teacher, but more than all that, it shows at every level how our society rises and falls in the schools of our country, that all the elements from how our bureaucracy fails us, what kind of support families truly can give in the inner city. So it highlights the massive challenge we have to meet in a very diverse, challenged urban setting.